Chair

Media Contact

Irene Chipurnoi Williams

Professor, English

Irene Williams, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1982. She offers undergraduate courses in nineteenth and twentieth-century U.S. literature, modern European literature, and literature of genocide and occupation. Her research focus is nineteenth-century U.S./New England literature.

Education

Scholarly and Creative Work

Williams’ research, writing, and conference presentations focus on the work of Emerson, Brownson, Wharton, Stein, and Dahlberg.

Teaching Interests

Williams has taught a variety of courses at USD where the focus of study is big books by challenging authors: Moby Dick by Melville, Specimen Days by Whitman, The Making of Americans by Stein, Life A User's Manual by Perec, Red Cavalry by Babel among them. She is especially interested in engaging students with dense, demanding , idiosyncratic literary texts that challenge them to read in new ways. In addition to teaching departmental classes, Williams has participated in team-taught, interdisciplinary classes for the Honors Program, most recently “Studies in Modern Palestinian Art and Literature” with Professor John Halaka and "Studies In Modern Latin American Art & Literature" with Professor Derrick Cartwright.